Newcastle United became notorious for having a rather chaotic sporting director role towards the back end of Eddie Howe's tenure.
Dan Ashworth, despite spending two solid years at the club, left with a rather hefty blemish on his record after a secret agreement with Manchester United was outed while he was still employed on Tyneside.
Then Paul Mitchell came along... the less said about his time at the club the better. Mitchell spent under a year at the club, had a fractured relationship with many employees, including Eddie Howe, behind the scenes and trashed how the club was run rather openly - some of which was correct it must be noted.
But now, despite all those issues, the Magpies find themselves in a position where they technically have two sporting directors with Ross Wilson the main man, and Jack Ross recently promoted to the position of assistant sporting director.
From one sporting director to two
Ross' new role isn't actually the club creating another specialised job title; it is merely an expansion of the role he was already performing with a few more responsibilities.
Ross was the 'Head of Football Strategy' which included managing facets such as emerging talent, loans and strategic relationships - he now still does a lot of those things, but under the guise of right-hand man for Ross Wilson.
It's safe to say that this current period under a sporting director has certainly gone a lot better than Paul Mitchell's did. Of course, Ashworth's time at the club is a bit more nuanced given the two years of good work he did, but he still betrayed the club rather heavily so he doesn't get much grace for that.
Ross Wilson navigated a difficult window very well this summer and clearly the club were so pleased with how he did that they decided duplicating him was the right call. It is quite the turnaround. Newcastle once couldn't seem to keep one sporting director. Now the sporting director has his own sporting director.
This actually tells us something quite big
I wrote extensively yesterday about Andy Howe's departure and how it shows the club have almost entirely replaced the previous structure and strategies when it comes to recruitment.
Well, this new development tells us something similar, but it encompasses a lot more facets of the club than just recruitment. Newcastle United are building a football department rather than just employing a handful of random individuals who don't work together.
One of the biggest qualms with how the club was being run from a supporters perspective was that it appeared shrouded in a coating of chaos no matter what was on the agenda. None of those in the hierarchy seemed to be working together, nobody really knew who was responsible for what and, ultimately, it is probably one of the main factors that contributed to setting the club back so far last season.
So, heading into the new period, it is excellent to see that those issues have clearly been actively addressed by the club.
The important distinction
Of course, having two people in these positions doesn't necessarily mean Newcastle United now have two people fighting for control of the same department.
In fact, quite the opposite appears to be true.
Jack Ross' promotion seems to be another sign that Newcastle are finally attempting to create a properly defined hierarchy within the football department, with Wilson ultimately responsible for the overall sporting strategy and Ross operating underneath him across a number of key areas.
That is a far cry from the situation the club found itself in during the latter stages of Howe's tenure.
Instead of relying on different departments to perform different jobs and being left scrambling to find a replacement when a departure occurs, there is a foundational structure being built that allows succession without costing operations.
If Wilson left tomorrow, for example, the club shouldn't descend back into uncertainty. There should be people underneath who understand how everything works, who can step up and keep things ticking over.
The calm that replaces the chaos
Looking at the whole debacle that unfolded previously, and then comparing it to the fact there are now multiple people doing the job that was heavily responsible for derailing the last era of the project, has an amusing irony.
But ultimately, it is a massive step in the right direction to see the Magpies finally establish a proper structure with a much clearer vision of what each role does, their responsibilities, and what success actually looks like.
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